After hagbahah and gelila (in Ashkenazi schuls), the Torah must remain out until the proper point of return. In some schuls, I have seen special furniture to hold the Sefarim. In others, I have seen ...

Is it possible to have a "stand-alone" Torah service, not connected to a statutory prayer? I saw this done on Shavuot once, where some people who slept through davening convened a minyan solely for ...

I have noticed in many kehillot, that the sha"tz will begin the Mi-Shebeirach before musaf (Hu y'varech et kol hakahal) at "(U)Mi she-oskim". At first, I thought that this was probably an oversight ...

When the Sefer Torah is brought out of the ark, everyone stands up and kisses it.
On occasions such as simchat torah and hoshana rabbah people dance around the Torah.
To an outsider these actions can ...

On Simchat Torah, a special formula is used to call up the Chatan Torah, the person who gets the final aliyah. In this formula, it says "עמוד רבי (פלוני) חתן התורה" a few times.
The question: Why do ...

In the past, I have davened at a Chabad on Simchat Torah. Their custom is to call up multiple individuals per aliyah rather than having multiple kriot. The only other places I have seen this was at ...

In Teimani and Kurdish batei knesset, the minhag is, as far as I'm aware, to read a targum after each pasuk. Assuming that a schul wishes to adopt the kriat hatargum, would it be acceptable to adopt a ...

According to this question, the Annotated Tehillat Hashem Siddur (a Chabad siddur) encourages the Bar mitzvah boy to get his first aliya on Monday, Thursday, or Shabbat Mincha or Rosh Chodesh. This ...

Some years ago I visited a shul where the hazzan chanted Hatzi Kaddish of the Shabbat Torah service in the nusach of the Haftarah. I seem to recall it started with mapach pashtah munach zokeif-katon.
...

I heard from a Bengali writing - just a single line that - Jews fear their God that much that they even fear to touch the God's word. Then I searched and found that Jews use Yad when they read Torah. ...

Tachanun is supplemented on Mondays and Thursdays by extended tachanunim starting "V'hu rachum". On those days, after tachanun is half-kadish (kadish l'ela, as some call it), a short paragraph that ...

Could someone point me to the source of the custom where typically within the Sephardic communities, it is customary for a boy to be called for maftir/hafatarah at the age of 9 years.
Is this brought ...

I was learning in a sefer which discusses a case where they couldn't do hagbah, and the Mechaber suggested to do the hagbah like the Teimanim which is to leave it on table in some way, but I didn't ...

By Hagbahos HaTorah people point at the Torah with the pinky of their right hand. I have seen others point with the pinky of both hands. Someone told me this is brought down in the Me’am Lo’ez. Where ...

Perhaps, the title of my question sounds amusing, but I see this happen in my shul a bit too often for me to laugh at it any more. Many of the Bar Mitzvah boys in my shul can barely read Hebrew. but, ...

There have been instances where we had 9 people in the shul, and we began to daven Mincha Shabbat afternoon. We finished our individual Shmoneh Esreh, when the 10th person appeared. Can we go back and ...

Why on shabbos is ashrai said before returning the sefer-torah and on weekday (nusach ashkenaz) afterwards. This cannot have to do with kaddish tiskabel since this is also done on rosh chodesh where ...

There's a widespread custom for the Chazzan to bow, facing the ark, when reciting "Gadlu" with the Torah before carrying it away. The Aruch Hashulach (282:1) says that one should do this, but doesn't ...

How should two Sifrei Torah be taken out of the ark since one should not do two mitvot simultaneously? Should one person take them both out and give one to the chazzan and then keep one for himself or ...

Imagine that the Cohen family reunion is on a Monday. A minyan is planned with a sefer Torah. However, the gabbai, a kohen, looks around and sees that the minyan has nine kohanim and one levi - who ...

When an adopted child is called up for an aliyah, how are they referred to? Are they called ben-(adopted parents' name) or something else? Are there any qualifiers involved?
I'm given to understand ...

Some people in shul mark it as a sign of respect, as the Torah makes its way to/from the Aron Kodesh, to kiss it, and rush to get as close as possible. Others, given the cold season, think that this ...

Sometimes I hear people being called up as Yaamod, Ploni ben Ploni Reviyi Chazak.
Most of the time there is something interesting about the Aliya or Oleh. Is there any hard and fast rule when to say ...

What is to be done with a Sefer Torah written by an apikoreis, or by a soffer of unknown apikoreis-status (whether it be a question of the status of the soffer who wrote it, or if it is unknown who ...